Off the roadways, area residents dig out homes

There was no rest for the weary Sunday as workers and residents cleared more than 2 feet of snow that blanketed the region Friday and Saturday.

Plow trucks were out in force, and motorists crept up to intersections where snowbanks stood many feet high. But much of the labor was occurring off the roadways.

Working on just four hours of sleep since 7 a.m. Friday, Jonas Carvalho and Camillo Farias had their snowblowers in high gear Sunday morning, clearing the walkway to the athletic center at Nichols College in Dudley.

Mr. Farias, the account supervisor for Eagle Cleaning of Worcester, a vendor for the business school, said they would keep going until they finished.

They were about halfway through their assignment of clearing snow from in front of residence halls and buildings that Nichols staff cannot clear with plow trucks and machines, he said.

Just up the road on Center Road in Dudley, Mark A. Stefanik stood on the roof of his Colonial house, shoveling snow.

On Saturday, Mr. Stefanik, said he spent six hours clearing his steep driveway with a snowblower.

A nephew who was visiting lent a much-needed hand with a shovel, because the snowblower is only 16 inches tall, while snowdrifts were more than 3 feet.

After he was done with the roof, Mr. Stefanik said, he would continue to clean up the driveway with a snowblower.

On East Main Street in Webster, siblings Tammy, Jeff and Pam Houle, and Tammy’s boyfriend, Shaune Ducharme, were in worse shape, even though they had plowed twice Friday during the storm.

Tammy Houle, 33, said they were working on her parents’ steep driveway and walkways while her parents were visiting their eldest son in Florida.

They had two snowblowers and Mr. Ducharme’s plow truck. But they couldn’t get started with the plow because of the height of the drift. They couldn’t identify the location of the stone wall that ran near the house.

Tammy Houle said she had no idea how long they would be there removing snow.

She said it was a good thing her mother, who is in her 70s, was on vacation. Her mother would have wanted to remove the snow herself.

“She’s out here every time it snows, by herself,” Ms. Houle said.

Help was harder to come by for Joel Cowher, a resident of Clemence Hill Road in Southbridge, near the municipal airport.

Mr. Cowher did not have the benefit of a snowblower for the large area he had to clear at the house. He’s lived in the house only four months.

And his three boys, 3-year-old A.J., 7-year-old Noah, and 10-year-old Colton, were more interested in playing. They gave a resounding “no” when their father asked them if they would help.

Conditions were difficult for making snowmen, the boys reported, but great for digging snow tunnels.

Mr. Cowher, who most recently lived in East Brookfield and Union, Conn., said he’s seen more snow over time, but this was the most he’s had to deal with at once.

Meanwhile, the Snowmobile Association of Massachusetts sent seven volunteers to snow-battered Plymouth and Wareham to help NStar gain access to seven downed, inaccessible heavy-duty transmission lines, according to Dan Gould, association president.

Five of the volunteers — John Berthiaume, Dale Hovagimian and Rich Lapierre of Spencer, Brad Rand of Leicester and Matt Graves of Brookfield — are from Worcester County.

NStar contacted the association because the downed lines are on dirt roads or footpaths in the woods, said Mr. Gould, who also works as a photographer for the Telegram & Gazette.

A regular snowmobile would have difficulty in snow this deep, he said. The job called for specialized utility snowmobiles and smaller “groomer” snowmobiles that are ridden by experienced operators. They are designed for deep snow and pulling a heavy load.

Mr. Gould explained that these riders groom snowmobile trails.

“They have experienced working in deep snow and packing it down,” he said.

The volunteers, whose expenses are being taking care of, were taking an NStar worker on the machines, which carry two people.

“They will go out and identify trouble spots and give NStar the ability to decide what action needs to be taken, shuttling workers in and out of trouble spots,” Mr. Gould said.

Naturally, many of the riders were not ready at a moment’s notice because their homes were also blanketed by the blizzard, and they needed to clear their driveways and snowmobile trails, as there hadn’t been much snow previously, he said.

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